Progress

I am just ecstatic over the progress I have seen in my health, lately! I thought I should update so I don't forget what amazing things have happened. When I first cut out sugar, gluten, and soy, I thought it would be a good idea to restart the exercise program I had started but was having a hard time keeping up my energy to complete the workouts. I love Chalene Johnson's Turbo Jam workout program. Everything about it, the kick boxing, music, dancing, and capoeira moves just speak fun to me. She came out with a strength training program, Chalean Extreme and a high intensity Turbo Fire program. I borrowed Chalean Extreme from Cristine and Ryan got me Turbo Fire for my birthday. I figured if I did the hybrid program, I would stand a chance at losing the baby weight that I had gained with Leah and never lost since I was to that point. That was my focus.

Then, it took so much energy to just change how I prepared our meals, that my exercise went out the window as I focused on what to eat. Eating like a diabetic celiac with a soy allergy is not as tough as it sounds. Oh wait, yes it is. There are so many catch 22's. Take bread, for instance. If it doesn't have gluten, which is good for the celiac part, then it has sugar, bad for the diabetic part. Trying to find the right bread mix is going to be hard. A lot of the gluten free breads are high in starches, like rice and grasses, that are high on the glycemic index. So evaluating food takes a lot more thought and preparation as I try to pair low glycemic foods with high ones to minimize the sugar spikes, but also be free of gluten.

After the first few weeks, it is getting easier. Thank goodness the girls aren't overly picky! I figure now is the perfect time for this so they can become accustomed to fresh foods and learn to like them while they are young, instead of fighting a stubborn teenager down the road. I think of how I used to sneak spoonfuls of sugar to pour on my Frosted Flakes, and how many times Mom told me I needed to lay off the sugar for my health. Well, twenty years later, it's finally sunk in. I've always done better when I understand the whys and hows. And, I guess, now I do.

I was able to get in some exercise and actually complete them in the past week. After my first workout, though, I thought I should see if my eating better had helped at all from when I first did all my measurements. I had seen weight-loss on the scale, but just chalked it up to water weight. But it wasn't just in my head. I lost .5 inch around my waist and 1.5 inches around my belly! I lost .5 inch on each of my thighs and 1 inch around my hips! I felt like Quincy on "Little Einsteins" who always exclaims, "I can not believe it!"

I've been told for so long to double my timetable for weight-loss, to celebrate a half pound loss if it came, and that I would be at risk for Type II diabetes because of my slower metabolism, which makes gaining weight super easy and losing it incredibly difficult. And I lost eight pounds in one month. Just from changing my diet. I am in utter shock. I still have a hard time believing it and this revelation came a week ago. I'd been diligent at counting calories, but I was eating all the wrong stuff. Since I changed our diet, I haven't counted calories once. I've just been paying attention to the first signs of satiation. I eat when I'm hungry. Snack on nuts, fruit, and veggies. And eat as fresh as possible.

It dawned on me recently, when Monica was singing "I Love To See the Temple", at the end, she always says, "I'll repair myself while I am young". Even though we correct her with the right words, she always says 'repair'. Anyways, while I was considering a menu, she was singing it and I just felt more strongly than I ever have about the divine nature of our bodies truly being temples. If we are to strive to make our homes like temples, where the Spirit can dwell, I ought to be doing what I can for my body and my family's to be healthy and whole so that the Spirit can dwell with us. And my body needs repairing, so that I can be around and be the mom and wife I want to be. It hasn't been fair that I get so exhausted that Ryan has to pick up more than his share of my slack. It hasn't been fair that we had more 'movie days' than 'play with my kids' days. And it hasn't been fair to me, when there has all along been something more I could do about it, that I have felt as slow, sluggish, foggy and down as I had been, all for a lack of knowing. I don't feel the Spirit as well, or pay attention to promptings, when I don't have energy to follow through. I don't feel that desire to align myself with God's will when I am down on myself and can't think straight. This last month has been life-changing in a way I can't help but want to share. I just keep finding studies upon studies that show the extent to which our culture's diet has made our bodies susceptible to disease. The sheer amount of diagnoses, and most of them food related, is astounding. But don't take my word for it. In the words of Network Television, "The more you know, the more you grow." The information is out there. We just have to find it. And do our own experiments for ourselves.